


Ground

by HeatherGiesbrecht



Category: Crimson Peak (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brother/Sister Incest, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Implied/Referenced Incest, Non-Graphic Violence, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeatherGiesbrecht/pseuds/HeatherGiesbrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The house was visibly sinking, they needed to get out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ground

Thomas said, "Lucille, stop, please. I've always loved you first, always." and grabbed her wrist when she went to stab him a second time. It was the look of mad determination on her face, but maybe he could still get through to her. She snarled wordlessly, straining to sink the knife into his heart when with a loud cracking of stone and wood the house shuddered. The unexpected impact knocked them to the floor.

He gasped, "The house..."

Some semblance of sanity returned to Lucille, "It's sinking !"

"The digger must have undercut the foundation, we need to get out." Instinctively, he pulled her up and dragged her from the room. Black moths and flies were flapping everywhere obscuring their sight. A presumably already loose beam of heavy oak fell crashing into the elevator and wrenching the chain from the ceiling. They threw themselves beneath the flailing chain, Edith had ducked a few feet away from them. Desperately, he scrambled to grab Edith's hand then pulled both women onto the grand staircase.

The house was now visibly sinking as they rushed down the stairs. No warning came before the roof started buckling in a shower of brick, wood and metal. One of the bricks slammed into his forehead, pain lanced through his skull and blood dripped into his eyes as he stumbled. It was only Lucille and Edith's hands that kept him from crashing down into the foyer, both moved to help guide him down. The pressure of the sinking was so great that the clay was now bubbling up the mine shaft. It flowed like blood from a punctured artery sweeping and gushing across the white tile. It stained their boots and the women's nightdresses as they rushed to the door. 

He shoved a fallen beam away from the door and forced it open to see that the landing was now two feet higher. Being eight feet tall there was only six feet left and it was shrinking even faster because of the clay. As Edith was closest he lifted her through the doorway where McMichael appeared to take Edith to safer ground. 

One of Lucille's hands touched the wound in his chest, he turned to look at her. Steadily the clay kept rising, it was now up to mid-thigh with no sign of stopping or even slowing.

There were tears in Lucille's eyes and a hysterical mantra of, "I did that to you, I stabbed you, I stabbed you !" left her lips.

It was her last chance to get out, so he swept her up, kissed her then whispered, "Let the winds blow calmly...dream of me." turned and rolled her through the two foot gap. 

With one last almighty groan the house collapsed in on itself, burying him amid viscous clay and crushing brick. An anguished, "No, Thomas ! Thomas !" was the last thing he heard. His last thought was that Lucille and Edith were safe, both his loves were safe. 


	2. Alternate Ending: Saftey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be warned that there are a few references to rape couched though they are.

Thomas was quite sure that he imagined it when Edith called his name. Except it happened again and he noticed a horrid earthy taste coating the back of his throat. An oddly wet yet harsh cough burst from his chest leaving him to tremble gasping as his ribs ached. Faintly at most did he feel his pulse throbbing in his temples. Someone stroked his hair gently while he fought to pry his eyes open. Dear God, but he was tired for some reason. Somewhat blurred vision aside he saw that Edith stood over him. Her golden hair glowed in the firelight, her eyes and nose red rimmed while her hands and forearms were ruddy with clay.

Recognition came back to him of Lucille's stabbing him, the house's increased rate of sinking, his barely being able to save the women and...the house's collapsing. How had...whomever gotten him from under everything to safety ? If it wasn't Edith holding him ? A barely audible, hopeful, "Luc...Lucille." escaped his mouth.

Lucille trembled as she pressed her chin against his crown and Edith smiled weakly in response. "I thought you were dead." Both women burst into a fit of laughter at their simultaneous sentence.

When Edith brought a glass of water to his lips he realized that they were in the depot's spare room. The bandage wrapped tight around his chest made it slightly awkward as he sipped some of the thankfully thin, mostly tasteless liquid.

McMichael again appeared in the doorway, wiping his hands of something. The blond doctor smiled, "You had us worried for a bit there still. If Edith and Lucille hadn't started digging right away while I brought the villagers to help them you would have died for sure. I figured that giving you some laudanum was the least I could do after you saved me."

He nodded and managed a muddled, "Thank you." before he finished off the water. Edith took McMichael with her when she went to get another glass for him. A soft groan left him as he slumped against Lucille.

She tilted his head up, pressing a queerly angled kiss to his lips. "I don't care if you love her too not now, not now. I almost lost you, I-I almost killed you."

"Ssh, it is alright, I swear it. Ack, y-you weren't thinking clearly."

Tears dripped from Lucille's eyes into his hair as she leaned in turn against the headboard. A shuddering sob wracked her body, "I need to go back, Thomas."

Brief confusion, well, considering the laudanum great confusion, filled him. Therefore, his mind drew an utterly blank canvas as he wondered, "Back where ?"

"Much as I refused it before I know now that I need to go back to the institution. You're not safe around me, your anything but safe."

That was when he remembered her telling him of the horrors she'd experienced after she'd woken them both screaming from a nightmare. "A-are you sure ?"

Lucille calmed herself, "I am, I am no longer the terrified girl I was when I first went there. Unlike all those years ago I would not hesitate to kill them now. Not a single one of them would get away alive if they defiled me a second time. It was only you that kept me alive afterward even though I thought you would want me no longer. You have no idea the relief I felt to know that I was wrong. You saved me, little brother, you loved me when they said no one would. I love you, Thomas, truly. Had I managed to stab you that second time even though I would be alive afterward I would not have lived without you."

Edith suddenly whispered from the doorway, "I'm sorry, Lucille. No matter that you killed your mother you did not deserve to have that happen."

A moment passed before Lucille formed a response, "Thank you, Edith, but it was over twenty-some years ago now. My entomology, my pickling of things, killing people and even Thomas and I were my way of handling it. A few years ago, I realized that I was again continuing my entomology because I loved it and not because I needed the control. It will never fully leave me, of course, it is not possible with an event such as that, but I do not have so many terrors as when it first happened and those I do can be easily managed. I will be fine in the institution I assure you both."

More laudanum dulled pain as he rolled over to embrace her. Her heart beating wondrously against his ear. Oh how he should have missed that sound if he no longer knew why he missed it in death. Muddled, but rather fiercely still considering Thomas growled, "They cannot stop me from seeing you this time ! I will not let them not even if it means the world's ending is nigh."

It almost surprised him when Edith said that she wished to accompany him whenever he would go. Quite a few weeks went by before everyone's wounds healed up, McMichael returned to America and Lucille sent herself to the institution. What did surprise him was the villagers reactions to him, they seemed quite jovial as they welcomed himself and Edith into a house on Harding Poole's main street. Simply because of Father's despicable actions before his not so unfortunate death, he and Lucille had never been seen in a favourable light. Yet now that Allerdale Hall itself was gone opinion seemed ready to turn in their favour for once. Six years later when his sister finally returned to Harding Poole they threw a little parade for her.

Though he knew not what had caused Allerdale Hall's final sinking he was infinitely grateful that it'd happened. After all, his, Edith's and Lucille's being able to live peacefully in the same house was his dream come true.


End file.
